At the United Nations, December 11, 1964In addition to being a
military leader, President of the National Bank, and Minister of Industries,
Guevara layed an important role in Cuban diplomacy. In 1959 he made a
tour of Afro-Asian countries; in 1960 he headed an economic delegation
to the Soviet-bloc countries, China, and North Korea; in 1961 he represented
Cuba at Punta del Este; in 1962 he headed another economic mission to
the Soviet Union; in 1968 he attended a conference on economic planning
in Algeria; in March, 1964, he represented Cuba at the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, then went to Algeria again
on an official mission, made a third trip to the Soviet Union in November,
and represented Cuba in the 19th Session of the UN General Assembly in
New York.

Mr. President;

Distinguished delegates:

The Delegation of Cuba to
this assembly, first of all, is pleased to fulfil the agreeable duty
of welcoming the addition of three new nations to the important number
of those that discuss the problems of the world here. We therefore
greet, in the persons of their presidents and prime ministers, the
peoples of Zambia, Malawi, and Malta, and express the hope that from
the outset these countries will be added to the group of Non-aligned
countries that struggle against imperialism, colonialism, and
neo-colonialism.

We also wish to convey our
congratulations to the president of this assembly (Alex
Quaison-Sackey of Ghana), whose elevation to so high a post is of
special significance since it reflects this new historic stage of
resounding triumphs for the peoples of Africa, who up until recently
were subject to the colonial system of imperialism. Today, in their
immense majority these peoples have become sovereign states through
the legitimate exercise of their self-determination. The final hour
of colonialism has struck, and millions of inhabitants of Africa,
Asia, and Latin America rise to meet a new life and demand their
unrestricted right to self-determination and to the independent
development of their nations.

We wish you, Mr. President, the greatest success in the tasks
entrusted to you by the member states.

Cuba comes here to state its
position on the most important points of controversy and will do so
with the full sense of responsibility that the use of this rostrum
implies, while at the same time fulfilling the unavoidable duty of
speaking clearly and frankly.

We would like to see this
assembly shake itself out of complacency and move forward. We would
like to see the committees begin their work and not stop at the
first confrontation. Imperialism wants to turn this meeting into a
pointless oratorical tournament, instead of solving the serious
problems of the world. We must prevent it from doing so. This
session of the assembly should not be remembered in the future
solely by the number nineteen that identifies it. Our efforts are
directed to that end.

We feel that we have the right and the obligation to do so, because
our country is one of the most constant points of friction. It is
one of the places where the principles upholding the right of small
countries to sovereignty are put to the test day by day, minute by
minute. At the same time our country is one of the trenches of
freedom in the world, situated a few steps away from United States
imperialism, showing by its actions, its daily example, that in the
present conditions of humanity the peoples can liberate themselves
and can keep themselves free.

Of course, there now exists a socialist camp that becomes stronger
day by day and has more powerful weapons of struggle. But additional
conditions are required for survival: the maintenance of internal
unity, faith in one's own destiny, and the irrevocable decision to
fight to the death for the defence of one's country and revolution.
These conditions, distinguished delegates, exist in Cuba.

Of all the burning problems to be dealt with by this assembly, one
of special significance for us, and one whose solution we feel must
be found first - so as to leave no doubt in the minds of anyone - is
that of peaceful coexistence among states with different economic
and social systems. Much progress has been made in the world in this
field. But imperialism, particularly U.S. imperialism, has attempted
to make the world believe that peaceful coex­istence is the
exclusive right of the earth's great powers. We say here what our
president said in Cairo, and what later was expressed in the
declaration of the Second Conference of Heads of State or Government
of Non-aligned Countries: that peaceful coexistence cannot be
limited to the powerful countries if we want to ensure world peace.
Peaceful coexistence must be exercised among all states, regardless
of size, regardless of the previous historical relations that linked
them, and regardless of the problems that may arise among some of
them at a given moment.

At present, the type of peaceful coexistence to which we aspire is
often violated. Merely because the Kingdom of Cambodia maintained a
neutral attitude and did not bow to the machina­tions of United
States imperialism, it has been subjected to all kinds of
treacherous and brutal attacks from the Yankee bases in South
Vietnam.

Laos, a divided country, has also been the object of imperialist
aggression of every kind. Its people have been massacred from the
air. The conventions concluded at Geneva have been violated, and
part of its territory is in constant danger of cowardly attacks by
imperialist forces.

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam knows all these histories of
aggression as do few nations on earth. It has once again seen its
frontier violated, has seen enemy bombers and fighter planes attack
its installations, and has seen U.S. warships, violating territorial
waters, attack its naval posts. At this time, the threat hangs over
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam that the U.S. war makers may
openly extend into its territory the war that for many years they
have been waging against the people of South Vietnam. The Soviet
Union and the People's Republic of China have given serious warnings
to the United States. We are faced with a case in which world peace
is in danger and, moreover, the lives of millions of human beings in
this part of Asia are constantly threatened and subjected to the
whim of the U.S. invader.

Peaceful coexistence has also been brutally put to the test in
Cyprus, due to pressures from the Turkish government and NATO,
compelling the people and the government of Cyprus to make a heroic
and firm stand in defence of their sovereignty.

In all these parts of the world, imperialism attempts to impose its
version of what coexistence should be. It is the op­pressed peoples
in alliance with the socialist camp that must show them what true
coexistence is, and it is the obligation of the United Nations to
support them.

We must also state that it is not only in relations among sover­eign
states that the concept of peaceful coexistence needs to be
precisely defined. As Marxists we have maintained that peaceful
coexistence among nations does not encompass coexistence be­tween
the exploiters and the exploited, between the oppressors and the
oppressed. Furthermore, the right to full independence from all
forms of colonial oppression is a fundamental principle of this
organization. That is why we express our solidarity with the
colonial peoples of so-called Portuguese Guinea, Angola, and Mozambique,
who have been massacred for the crime of demanding their freedom.
And we are prepared to help them to the extent of our ability in
accordance with the Cairo declaration.

We express our solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and their
great leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, who, in another act of hypocrisy,
has been set free at the age of seventy-two, almost unable to speak,
paralysed, after spending a lifetime in jail. Albizu Campos is a
symbol of the as yet unfree but indomitable Latin America. Years and
years of prison, almost unbearable pressures in jail, mental
torture, solitude, total isolation from his people and his family,
the insolence of the conqueror and its lackeys in the land of his
birth - nothing broke his will. The delegation of Cuba, on behalf of
its people, pays a tribute of ad­miration and gratitude to a
patriot who confers honour upon Our America.

The United States for many years has tried to convert Puerto Rico
into a model of hybrid culture: the Spanish language with English
inflections, the Spanish language with hinges on its backbone - the
better to bow down before the Yankee soldier. Puerto Rican soldiers
have been used as cannon fodder in imperialist wars, as in Korea,
and have even been made to fire at their own brothers, as in the
massacre perpetrated by the U.S. army a few months ago against the
unarmed people of Panama - one of the most recent crimes carried out
by Yankee imperialism. And yet, despite this assault on their will
and their historical destiny, the people of Puerto Rico have
preserved their culture, their Latin character, their national
feelings, which in themselves give proof of the implacable desire
for independence lying within the masses of that Latin American
island.

We must also warn that the principle of peaceful coexistence does
not encompass the right to mock the will of the peoples, as is
happening in the case of so-called British Guiana. There the
government of Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan has been the victim of
every kind of pressure and manoeuvre, and independence has been
delayed to gain time to find ways to flout the people's will and
guarantee the docility of a new government, placed in power by
covert means, in order to grant a castrated freedom to this country
of the Americas. Whatever roads Guiana may be compelled to follow to
obtain independence, the moral and militant support of Cuba goes to
its people.

Furthermore, we must point out that the islands of Guadeloupe and
Martinique have been fighting for a long time for self-government
without obtaining it. This state of affairs must not continue.

Once again we speak out to put the world on guard against what is
happening in South Africa. The brutal policy of apartheid is applied
before the eyes of the nations of the world. The peoples of Africa
are compelled to endure the fact that on the African continent the
superiority of one race over another remains official policy, and
that in the name of this racial superiority murder is committed with
impunity. Can the United Nations do nothing to stop this!

I would like to refer specifically to the painful case of the Congo,
unique in the history of the modern world, which shows how, with
absolute impunity, with the most insolent cynicism, the rights of
peoples can be flouted. The direct reason for all this is the
enormous wealth of the Congo, which the imperialist countries want
to keep under their control. In the speech he made during his first
visit to the United Nations, Compañero Fidel Castro observed that
the whole problem of coexistence among peoples boils down to the
wrongful appropriation of other peoples' wealth. He made the
following statement: "End the philosophy of plunder and the
philosophy of war will be ended as well."

But the philosophy of plunder has not only not been ended, it is
stronger than ever. And that is why those who used the name of the
United Nations to commit the murder of Lumumba are today, in the
name of the defence of the white race, murdering thousands of
Congolese. How can we forget the betrayal of the hope that Patrice
Lumumba placed in the United Nations? How can we forget the
machinations and manoeuvres that followed in the wake of the
occupation of that country by United Nations troops, under whose
auspices the assassins of this great African patriot acted with
impunity? How can we forget, distinguished delegates, that the one
who flouted the authority of the UN in the Congo - and not exactly
for patriotic reasons, but rather by virtue of conflicts between
imperialists-was Moise Tshombe, who initiated the secession of
Katanga with Belgian support? And how can one justify, how can one
explain, that at the end of all the United Nations activities there,
Tshombe, dislodged from Katanga, should return as lord and master of
the Congo? Who can deny the sad role that the imperialists compelled
the United Nations to play?

To sum up: dramatic mobilizations were carried out to avoid the
secession of Katanga, but today Tshombe is in power, the wealth of
the Congo is in imperialist hands - and the expenses have to be paid
by the honourable nations. The merchants of war certainly do good
business! That is why the government of Cuba supports the just
stance of the Soviet Union in refusing to pay the expenses for this
crime.

And as if this were not enough, we now have flung in our faces these
latest acts that have filled the world with indignation. Who are the
perpetrators? Belgian paratroopers, carried by United States planes,
who took off from British bases. We remember as if it were yesterday
that we saw a small country in Europe, a civilized and industrious
country, the Kingdom of Belgium, invaded by Hitler's hordes. We were
embittered by the knowledge that this small nation was massacred by
German imperialism, and we felt affection for its people. But this
other side of the imperialist coin was the one that many of us did
not see. Perhaps the sons of Belgian patriots who died defending
their country's liberty are now murdering in cold blood thousands of
Congolese in the name of the white race, just as they suffered under
the German heel because their blood was not sufficiently Aryan.

Our free eyes open now on new horizons and can see what yesterday,
in our condition as colonial slaves, we could not observe: that
"Western civilization" disguises behind its showy facade a
picture of hyenas and jackals. That is the only name that can be
applied to those who have gone to fulfil such
"humanitarian" tasks in the Congo. A carnivorous animal
that feeds on unarmed peoples. That is what imperialism does to men.
That is what distinguishes the imperial "white man."

All free men of the world must be prepared to avenge the crime of
the Congo. Perhaps many of those soldiers, who were turned into
subhumans by imperialist machinery, believe in good faith that they
are defending the rights of a superior race. In this assembly,
however, those peoples whose skins are darkened by a different sun,
coloured by different pigments, constitute the majority. And they
fully and clearly understand that the difference between men does
not lie in the colour of their skin, but in the forms of ownership
of the means of production, in the relations of production.

The Cuban delegation extends greetings to the peoples of Southern
Rhodesia and South-West Africa, oppressed by white colonialist
minorities; to the peoples of Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland,
French Somaliland, the Arabs of Palestine, Aden and the
Protectorates, Oman; and to all peoples in conflict with imperialism
and colonialism. We reaffirm our support to them.

I express also the hope that there will be a just solution to the
conflict facing our sister republic of Indonesia in its relations
with Malaysia.

Mr. President: One of the fundamental themes of this conference is
general and complete disarmament. We express our support for general
and complete disarmament. Furthermore, we advocate the complete
destruction of all thermonuclear devices and we support the holding
of a conference of all the nations of the world to make this
aspiration of all people a reality. In his statement before this
assembly, our prime minister warned that arms races have always led
to war. There are new nuclear powers in the world, and the
possibilities of a confrontation are growing.

We believe that such a conference is necessary to obtain the total
destruction of thermonuclear weapons and, as a first step, the total
prohibition of tests. At the same time, we have to establish clearly
the duty of all countries to respect the present borders of other
states and to refrain from engaging in any aggression, even with
conventional weapons.

In adding our voice to that of all the peoples of the world who ask
for general and complete disarmament, the destruction of all nuclear
arsenals, the complete halt to the building of new thermonuclear
devices and of nuclear tests of any kind, we believe it necessary to
also stress that the territorial integrity of nations must be
respected and the armed hand of imperialism held back, for it is no
less dangerous when it uses only conventional weapons. Those who
murdered thousands of defenceless citizens of the Congo did not use
the atomic bomb. They used conventional weapons. Conventional
weapons have also been used by imperialism, causing so many deaths.

Even if the measures advocated here were to become effective and
make it unnecessary to mention it, we must point out that we cannot
adhere to any regional pact for denuclearisation so long as the
United States maintains aggressive bases on our own territory, in
Puerto Rico, Panama, and in other Latin American states where it
feels it has the right to place both conventional and nuclear
weapons without any restrictions. We feel that we must be able to
provide for our own defence in the light of the recent resolution of
the Organization of American States against Cuba, on the basis of
which an attack may be carried out invoking the Rio Treaty.

If the conference to which we have just referred were to achieve all
these objectives - which, unfortunately, would be difficult - we
believe it would be the most important one in the history of
humanity. To ensure this it would be necessary for the People's
Republic of China to be represented, and that is why a conference of
this type must be held. But it would be much simpler for the peoples
of the world to recognize the undeniable truth of the existence of
the People's Republic of China, whose government is the sole
representative of its people, and to give it the seat it deserves,
which is, at present, usurped by the gang that controls the province
of Taiwan, with United States support.

The problem of the representation of China in the United Nations
cannot in any way be considered as a case of a new admission to the
organization, but rather as the restoration of the legitimate rights
of the People's Republic of China.

We must repudiate energetically the "two Chinas" plot. The
Chiang Kai-shek gang of Taiwan cannot remain in the United Nations.
What we are dealing with, we repeat, is the expulsion of the usurper
and the installation of the legitimate representative of the Chinese
people.

We also warn against the United States government's insistence on
presenting the problem of the legitimate representation of China in
the UN as an "important question," in order to impose a
requirement of a two-thirds majority of members present and voting.
The admission of the People's Republic of China to the United
Nations is, in fact, an important question for the entire world, but
not for the machinery of the United Nations, where it must
constitute a mere question of procedure. In this way justice will be
done. Almost as important as attaining justice, however, would be
the demonstration, once and for all, that this august assembly has
eyes to see, ears to hear, tongues to speak with, and sound criteria
for making its decisions.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons among the member states of
NATO, and especially the possession of these devices of mass
destruction by the Federal Republic of Germany, would make the
possibility of an agreement on disarmament even more remote, and
linked to such an agreement is the problem of the peaceful
reunification of Germany. So long as there is no clear
understanding, the existence of two Germanys must be recognized:
that of the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic. The
German problem can be solved only with the direct participation in
negotiations of the German Democratic Republic with full rights.

We shall only touch on the questions of economic development and
international trade that are broadly represented in the agenda. In
this very year of 1964 the Geneva conference was held at which a
multitude of matters related to these aspects of international
relations were dealt with. The warnings and forecasts of our
delegation were fully confirmed, to the misfortune of the
economically dependent countries.

We wish only to point out that insofar as Cuba is concerned, the
United States of America has not implemented the explicit
recommendations of that conference, and recently the U.S. government
also prohibited the sale of medicines to Cuba. By doing so it
divested itself, once and for all, of the mask of humanitarianism
with which it attempted to disguise the aggressive nature of its
blockade against the people of Cuba.

Furthermore, we state once more that the scars left by colonialism
that impede the development of the peoples are expressed not only in
political relations. The so-called deterioration of the terms of
trade is nothing but the result of the unequal exchange between
countries producing raw materials and industrial countries, which
dominate markets and impose the illusory justice of equal exchange
of values.

So long as the economically dependent peoples do not free themselves
from the capitalist markets and, in a firm bloc with the socialist
countries, impose new relations between the exploited and the
exploiters, there will be no solid economic development. In certain
cases there will be retrogression, in which the weak countries will
fall under the political domination of the imperialists and
colonialists.

Finally, distinguished delegates, it must be made clear that in the
area of the Caribbean, manoeuvres and preparations for aggression
against Cuba are taking place, on the coasts of Nicaragua above all,
in Costa Rica as well, in the Panama Canal Zone, on Vieques Island
in Puerto Rico, in Florida, and possibly in other parts of United
States territory and perhaps also in Honduras. In these places Cuban
mercenaries are training, as well as mercenaries of other
nationalities, with a purpose that cannot be the most peaceful one.

After a big scandal, the government of Costa Rica - it is said - has
ordered the elimination of all training camps of Cuban exiles in
that country. No one knows whether this position is sincere, or
whether it is simply an alibi because the mercenaries training there
were about to commit some misdeed. We hope that full cognisance will
be taken of the real existence of bases for aggression, which we
denounced long ago, and that the world will ponder the international
responsibility of the government of a country that authorizes and
facilitates the training of mercenaries to attack Cuba.

We should note that news of the training of mercenaries in different
parts of the Caribbean and the participation of the U.S. government
in such acts is presented as completely natural in the newspapers in
the United States. We know of no Latin American voice that has
officially protested this. This shows the cynicism with which the
United States government moves its pawns.

The sharp foreign ministers of the OAS had eyes to see Cuban emblems
and to find "irrefutable" proof in the weapons that the
Yankees exhibited in Venezuela, but they do not see the preparations
for aggression in the United States, just as they did not hear the
voice of President Kennedy, who explicitly declared himself the
aggressor against Cuba at Playa Girón. In some cases, it is a
blindness provoked by the hatred against our revolution by the
ruling classes of the Latin American countries. In others – and
these are sadder and more deplorable - it is the product of the
dazzling glitter of mammon.

As is well known, after the tremendous commotion of the so-called
Caribbean crisis, the United States undertook certain commitments
with the Soviet Union. These culminated in the withdrawal of certain
types of weapons that the continued acts of aggression of the United
States - such as the mercenary attack at Playa Girón and threats of
invasion against our homeland - had compelled us to install in Cuba
as an act of legitimate and essential defence.

The United States,
furthermore, tried to get the UN to in­spect our territory. But we
emphatically refuse, since Cuba does not recognize the right of the
United States, or of anyone else in the world, to determine the type
of weapons Cuba may have within its borders.

In this connection, we would abide only by multilateral agreements,
with equal obligations for all the parties concerned. As Fidel
Castro has said:

So
long as the concept of sovereignty exists as the prerogative of
nations and of independent peoples, as a right of all peoples, we
will not accept the exclusion of our people from that right. So long
as the world is governed by these principles, so long as the world
is governed by those concepts that have universal validity because
they are universally accepted and recognized by the peoples, we will
not accept the attempt to deprive us of any of those rights, and we
will renounce none of those rights.

The secretary-general of the
United Nations, U Thant, understood our reasons. Nevertheless, the
United States attempted to establish a new prerogative, an arbitrary
and illegal one: that of violating the airspace of a small country.
Thus, we see flying over our country U-2 aircraft and other types of
spy planes that, with complete impunity, fly over our airspace. We
have made all the necessary warnings for the violations of our
airspace to cease, as well as for a halt to the
provocations of the United States Navy against our sentry posts in
the zone of Guantánamo, the buzzing by aircraft of our ships or the
ships of other nationalities in inter­national waters, the pirate
attacks against ships sailing under dif­ferent flags, and the
infiltration of spies, saboteurs, and weapons onto our island.

We want to build socialism. We have declared that we are sup­porters
of those who strive for peace. We have declared ourselves to be
within the group of Non-aligned countries, although we are
Marxist-Leninists, because the Non-aligned countries, like our­selves,
fight imperialism. We want peace. We want to build a better life for
our people. That is why we avoid, insofar as possible, falling into
the provocations manufactured by the Yankees. But we know the
mentality of those who govern them. They want to make us pay a very
high price for that peace. We reply that the price cannot go beyond
the bounds of dignity.

And Cuba reaffirms once again the right to maintain on its territory
the weapons it deems appropriate, and its refusal to recognize the
right of any power on earth - no matter how powerful - to violate
our soil, our territorial waters, or our airspace.

If in any assembly Cuba assumes obligations of a collective nature,
it will fulfil them to the letter. So long as this does not happen,
Cuba maintains all its rights, just as any other nation. In the face
of the demands of imperialism, our prime minister laid out the five
points necessary for the existence of a secure peace in the
Caribbean.

They are:

A halt to the economic
blockade and all economic and trade pressures by the United
States, in all parts of the world, against our country.

A halt to all subversive activities,
launching and landing of weapons and explosives by air and sea,
organization of mercenary invasions, infiltration of spies and
saboteurs, acts all carried out from the territory of the United
States and some accomplice countries.

A halt to pirate attacks carried out from
existing bases in the United States and Puerto Rico.

A halt to all the violations of our
airspace and our territorial waters by United States aircraft
and warships.

Withdrawal from the Guantánamo naval base
and return of the Cuban territory occupied by the United States.

None of
these elementary demands has been met, and our forces are still
being provoked from the naval base at Guantánamo. That base has
become a nest of thieves and a launching pad for them into our
territory. We would tire this assembly were we to give a detailed
account of the large number of provocations of all kinds. Suffice it
to say that including the first days of December the number amounts
to 1,323 in 1964 alone. The list covers minor provocations such as
violation of the boundary line, launching of objects from the
territory controlled by the United States, the commission of acts of
sexual exhibitionism by U.S. personnel of both sexes, and verbal
insults. It includes others that are more serious, such as shooting
off small-calibre weapons, aiming weapons at our territory, and
offences against our national flag. Extremely serious provocations
include those of crossing the boundary line and starting fires in
installations on the Cuban side, as well as rifle fire. There have
been seventy-eight rifle shots this year, with the sorrowful toll of
one death: that of Ramon Lopez Pefia, a soldier, killed by two shots
fired from the United States post three and a half kilometres from
the coast on the northern boundary. This extremely grave provocation
took place at 7:07 p.m. on July 19, 1964, and the prime minister of
our government publicly stated on July 26 that if the event were to
recur he would give orders for our troops to repel the aggression.
At the same time orders were given for the withdrawal of the forward
line of Cuban forces to positions farther away from the boundary
line and construction of the necessary fortified positions.

One thousand three hundred
and twenty-three provocations in 340 days amount to approximately
four per day. Only a perfectly disciplined army with a morale such
as ours could resist so many hostile acts without losing its
self control.

Forty-seven countries meeting at the Second Conference of Heads of
State or Government of Non-aligned Countries in Cairo unanimously
agreed:

Noting with concern that foreign military bases are in practice a
means of bringing pressure on nations and retarding their
emancipation and development, based on their own ideological,
political, economic, and cultural ideas, the conference declares its
full support to the countries which are seeking to secure the
evacuation of foreign bases on their territory and calls upon all
states maintaining troops and bases in other countries to remove
them forthwith.

The conference considers that the maintenance at Guantánamo (Cuba)
of a military base of the United States of America, in defiance of
the will of the government and people of Cuba and in defiance of the
provisions embodied in the declaration of the Belgrade conference,
constitutes a violation of Cuba's sovereignty and territorial
integrity. Noting that the Cuban government expresses its readiness
to settle its dispute over the base of Guantánamo with the United
States of America on an equal footing, the conference urges the
United States government to negotiate the evacuation of this base
with the Cuban government. The government of the United States has
not responded to this request of the Cairo conference and is
attempting to maintain indefinitely by force its occupation of a
piece of our territory, from which it carries out acts of aggression
such as those detailed earlier.

The Organization of American States - which the people also call the
United States Ministry of Colonies - condemned us
"energetically," even though it had just excluded us from
its midst, ordering its members to break off diplomatic and trade
relations with Cuba. The OAS authorized aggression against our
country at any time and under any pretext, violating the most fundamental
international laws, completely disregarding the United Nations.
Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico opposed that measure, and the
government of the United States of Mexico refused to comply with the
sanctions that had been approved. Since then we have had no
relations with any Latin American countries except Mexico, and this
fulfils one of the necessary conditions for direct aggression by
imperialism.

We want to make clear once again that our concern for Latin America
is based on the ties that unite us: the language we speak, the
culture we maintain, and the common master we had. We have no other
reason for desiring the liberation of Latin America from the U.S.
colonial yoke. If any of the Latin American countries here decide to
reestablish relations with Cuba, we would be willing to do so on the
basis of equality, and without viewing that recognition of Cuba as a
free country in the world to be a gift to our government. Because we
won that recognition with our blood in the days of the liberation
struggle. We acquired it with our blood in the defence of our shores
against the Yankee invasion.

Although we reject any accusations against us of interference in the
internal affairs of other countries, we cannot deny that we
sympathize with those people who strive for their freedom. We must
fulfil the obligation of our government and people to state clearly
and categorically to the world that we morally support and stand in
solidarity with peoples who struggle anywhere in the world to make a
reality of the rights of full sovereignty proclaimed in the United
Nations Charter.

It is the United States that intervenes. It has done so historically
in Latin America. Since the end of the last century Cuba has
experienced this truth; but it has been experienced, too, by
Venezuela, Nicaragua, Central America in general, Mexico, Haiti, and
the Dominican Republic. In recent years, apart from our people,
Panama has experienced direct aggression, where the marines in the
Canal Zone opened fire in cold blood against the defenceless people;
the Dominican Republic, whose coast was violated by the Yankee fleet
to avoid an outbreak of the just fury of the people after the death
of Trujillo; and Colombia, whose capital was taken by assault as a
result of a rebellion provoked by the assassination of Gaitán.

Covert interventions are carried out through military missions that
participate in internal repression, organizing forces designed for
that purpose in many countries, and also in coups d'etat, which have
been repeated so frequently on the Latin American continent during
recent years. Concretely, United States forces intervened in the
repression of the peoples of Venezuela, Colombia, and Guatemala, who
fought with weapons for their freedom. In Venezuela, not only do
U.S. forces advise the army and the police, but they also direct
acts of genocide carried out from the air against the peasant
population in vast insurgent areas. And the Yankee companies
operating there exert pressures of every kind to increase direct
interference. The imperialists are preparing to repress the peoples
of the Americas and are establishing an International of Crime.

The United States intervenes in Latin America invoking the defence
of free institutions. The time will come when this assembly will
acquire greater maturity and demand of the United States government
guarantees for the lives of the Blacks and Latin Americans who live
in that country, most of them U.S. citizens by origin or adoption.

Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against
them because of the colour of their skin; those who let the
murderers of Blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore
punishing the Black population because they demand their legitimate
rights as free men - how can those who do this con­sider themselves
guardians of freedom? We understand that today the assembly is not
in a position to ask for explanations of these acts. It must be
clearly established, however, that the government of the United
States is not the champion of freedom, but rather the perpetuator of
exploitation and oppression against the peoples of the world and
against a large part of its own population.

To the ambiguous language with which some delegates have described
the case of Cuba and the OAS, we reply with clear-cut words and we
proclaim that the peoples of Latin America will make those servile,
sellout governments pay for their treason. Cuba, distinguished
delegates, a free and sovereign state with no chains binding it to
anyone, with no foreign investments on its territory, with no
proconsuls directing its policy, can speak with its head held high
in this assembly and can demonstrate the justice of the phrase by
which it has been baptized: "Free Territory of the
Americas."

Our example will bear fruit in the continent, as it is already doing
to a certain extent in Guatemala, Colombia, and Venezuela.

There is no small enemy nor insignificant force, because no longer
are there isolated peoples. As the Second Declaration of Havana
states:

No nation in Latin America is weak - because each forms part of a
family of 200 million brothers, who suffer the same miseries, who
harbor the same sentiments, who have the same enemy, who dream about
the same better future, and who count upon the solidarity of all
honest men and women throughout the world. ...

This epic before us is going to be written by the hungry Indian
masses, the peasants without land, the exploited workers. It is
going to be written by the progressive masses, the honest and
brilliant intellectuals, who so greatly abound in our suffering
Latin American lands. A struggle of masses and of ideas. An epic
that will be carried forward by our peoples, mistreated and scorned
by imperialism; our people, unreckoned with until today, who are now
beginning to shake off their slumber. Imperialism considered us a
weak and submissive flock; and now it begins to be terrified of that
flock; a gigantic flock of 200 million Latin Americans in whom
Yankee monopoly capitalism now sees its gravediggers. ...

But now from one end of the continent to the other they are
signalling with clarity that the hour has come - the hour of their
vindication. Now this anonymous mass, this America of colour,
somber, taciturn America, which all over the continent sings with
the same sadness and disillusionment, now this mass is beginning to
enter definitively into its own history, is beginning to write it
with its own blood, is beginning to suffer and die for it.

Because now in the mountains and fields of America, on its flatlands
and in its jungles, in the wilderness or in the traffic of cities,
on the banks of its great oceans or rivers, this world is beginning
to tremble. Anxious hands are stretched forth, ready to die for what
is theirs, to win those rights that were laughed at by one and all
for five hundred years. Yes, now history will have to take the poor
of America into account, the exploited and spurned of America, who
have decided to begin writing their history for themselves for all
time. Already they can be seen on the roads, on foot, day after day,
in an endless march of hundreds of kilometres to the governmental
"eminences," there to obtain their rights.

Already they can be seen armed with stones, sticks, machetes, in one
direction and another, each day, occupying lands, sinking hooks into
the land that belongs to them and defending it with their lives.
They can be seen carrying signs, slogans, flags; letting them flap
in the mountain or prairie winds. And the wave of anger, of demands
for justice, of claims for rights trampled underfoot, which is
beginning to sweep the lands of Latin America, will not stop. That
wave will swell with every passing day. For that wave is composed of
the greatest number, the majorities in every respect, those whose
labour amasses the wealth and turns the wheels of history. Now they
are awakening from the long, brutalizing sleep to which they had
been subjected. For this great mass of humanity has said,
"Enough!" and has begun to march. And their march of
giants will not be halted until they conquer true independence - for
which they have vainly died more than once. Today, however, those
who die will die like the Cubans at Playa Girón. They will die for
their own true and never-to-be-surrendered independence.

All this, distinguished
delegates, this new will of a whole continent, of Latin America, is
made manifest in the cry proclaimed daily by our masses as the
irrefutable expression of their decision to fight and to paralyse
the armed hand of the invader. It is a cry that has the
understanding and support of all the peoples of the world and
especially of the socialist camp, headed by the Soviet Union.

Raúl Castro (1931- )
Participant in Moncada attack and imprisoned subsequently; Granma expeditionary; commander of
Rebel Army's Second Front of Oriente; minister of Revolutionary Armed Forces, 1959-present; Vice-Premier, 1959-76; in 1976 became first Vice-President of Council of State and Council of Ministers; second secretary of Communist Party since 1965; brother of Fidel Castro.